Text Box: Too often as a movement practitioner I hear clients say, “ I have tried so hard to make stretching a regiment in my life but I never really seem to become more flexible. I think I am just a tight person.” Well, some of that may be true but if the body is only taken into a traditional muscle stretch it is hard for the body to feel much change in flexibility. One piece that was not taught to us in our mid-school PE classes is that the body has layers of fascia contributing loads to how flexible we are or are to become. When the muscle works to elongate the fascia we begin to feel more flexibility in our body. The body’s layers of fascia dictate how long or short our range of motion in movement is. We are connected with fascia that allows us to be long and supple or forces us to be short and compacted. Fascia is the full and long “body stocking” that intertwines through our internal structure and connects us all together. Connective tissue is another name for fascia. Fascia has many layers in and throughout the internal structure of our body. Each piece of our internal structure is covered with fascia and, each internal piece is divided and linked together by fascial tissue. Fascia is elastic and long in it’s best case scenario and short and ropey in its state of holding the body in compaction. Our internal structure is woven together in a very intricate way with our fascia, stretching equally and opposing like a piece of woven fabric. Each layer of our fascia stretches in a way that is spun together like a fine but strong taught spider web. When executing a long hamstring stretch one line of the fascia connects us from inside our eye sockets, over the top of the head, down the backside of the body to the heel and under the foot. This line of connectivity both hold us together and allows us to feel that long and pleasurable stretch. If the fascial line has become short and impaired we feel a pain in the stretch and don’t feel flexible. Our muscles are loaded with motor nerves that are intelligent and tell the muscles that we stretch how far to stretch or whether to stretch at all. The fascia that covers the muscle like a stocking is not innervated, or have a “sense” of elongation, and can only be at the mercy of the intelligent muscle for length and flexibility. Therefore if the muscle slowly and consistently is lengthened the shape of the fascia will also be long. Sitting at a desk slumped over a computer everyday, the lumbar fascia becomes short and compressed. Over time the memory of that posture imprints the fascia to maintain a short lordosis (swayback) position. It is only when the muscle is lengthened and consistently reminded to be in length that fascial connective tissue lengthens and becomes pliable . The long and oppositional stretching that creates this fascial length is found in the Pilates and GYROTONIC® methods. Footwork choreography on the REFORMER is done with a sense of “riding” the spring. This is needed to elongate the muscle for change in the fascia. Riding the spring means feeling both the body and the spring pulling away from each other through strength in our deep core muscles. The triple pulley system of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® gives the client a way to work on the “teeter totter” action of neither pushing or pulling, but working through the core. With the pulley system we are able to again “ride” the resistance and float through length leaving the joint open to move in freedom. All of these actions teach the muscle to be consistently long and entice the fascia to follow suit. Often times as practitioners we refer our clients to a professional ROLFER to expedite the process of elongating the fascia. In ROLFING the fascia is helped into elongation through the ROLFING practitioners hand manipulations. ROLFING is an extremely methodical way of lengthening the fascia for structural integration. (For more information about ROLFING see our front desk.) Take some time in this new year to commit to a more flexible body through a conscious integration of muscle stretching for fascia lengthening. You may find that you move with more grace and freedom and want to move more! Watch the integration of flexibility spill over into your mind, body and spirit connection. Sometimes the smallest movements can make the biggest changes.

The Core Chronicles

 

4401-A Cutler Ave. N.E.                                                                                                                                                                                              volume 12

Albuquerque, NM 87110                                                                                                                                                                                            issue 1

 

WWW.PILATESALBUQUERQUE.COM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Text Box: PERSONAL FLEXIBILITY